1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to lid openers for use in motor vehicles for remotely controlling or unlatching a lid, such as a filler cap, a trunk lid or the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to the lid openers of a double lever type having two control levers for remotely controlling or unlatching two lid members respectively.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to clarify the task of the present invention, one conventional lid opener will be briefly described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11 of the accompanying drawings.
As is seen from FIG. 10, the lid opener 100 shown is of a double lever type. The lid opener 100 is arranged on a vehicle floor "F", more specifically, on a base member 102 tightly held by a cross member 104 of the vehicle body.
The lid opener 100 comprises two, viz., longer and shorter control levers 106 and 108 which are pivotally disposed about a common shaft 110 held by the base member 102. The two control levers 106 and 108 have rear ends 106a and 108a from which respective wires 112 (114) extend to respective latch mechanisms of a trunk lid and a filler cap. The two control levers 106 and 108 are biased to assume horizontal rest positions by respective biasing springs 116 and 118. When the longer control lever 106 is pulled up against the biasing force of the spring 116, the wire 112 is driven in a direction to cancel a latched condition of the latch mechanism of the trunk lid. Upon this, the trunk lid becomes unlatched and thus can be opened. While, when the shorter control lever 108 is pulled up against the force of the spring 118, the wire 114 is pulled to unlatch the filler cap.
For ease with which the two control levers 106 and 108 are manipulated by a driver, such lid opener 100 is arranged just beside the driver's seat, that is, in a limited space defined between the driver's seat and the driver's door.
However, due to inherency originating from the position where the lid opener 100 is located, it often happens that the lid opener 100 is strongly stepped on by the driver at his or her ingress and egress into and from the vehicle cabin, which tends to cause damages of the control levers 106 and 108.
For eliminating such drawbacks, various measures have been hitherto proposed, which are, for example, covering the lid opener 100 with a cover member, using a much thicker metal plate as the material of the control levers 106 and 108, locating the lid opener 100 away from such limited space, etc.,. However, even these measures have failed to provide users with satisfaction. In fact, such measures tend to induce a bulky, costly and/or ill-handy lid opener.